Embassy went well!! We are almost done.

Today we went to the Embassy to get Josie's visa and packet of paperwork to get her into the US.  The only thing left to do is to registered with the Consulate which our coordinator is in the process of doing now.  The embassy went well and there were a lot of other families with their little kiddos waiting.  Josie loved seeing other kids.  She will be so glad to see her brothers as I think she really misses other kids.  The Embassy was quite painless, just a lot of waiting with a lot of kids who were hungry and tired.  Josie did great though.  She really has been a trooper thru out all the appointments.  She has learned to say Mama and Dada.  Yesterday when we went to the Red Square she had to be really bundled up and she didn't like it, so she kept hollering for Dada.  I think she knew if he was here he would rescue her from the wrath of Mama bundling.  Josie and I look at animal books and she has learned the bear sound.  So now she growls all the time.  It is super cute.  It has been so nice to have my Mom here with us. It has been great to spend the time with her and she has really enjoyed seeing the sights and getting to spend time with Josie.  It is still very cold and damp here so just managing a bundled up baby along with paperwork would be very hard to do alone.

We just go the phone call from our coordinator that she as all the paperwork done so we are officially done and will now be heading home tomorrow.  We leave our hotel at 4:00 a.m. for our 22 hour trip home.  We could use some prayers for this last leg of our journey.  Josie is a wonderful baby but that long of a trip will be hard on her.  She has a really hard time going to sleep anywhere except her crib.  The day of the long train ride we got a sneak peek of her coping technique that she has used during her stay at the orphanage.  That day she was done with all the holding and only wanted to be in her bed.  We gave her that space and let her put herself to sleep the way she normally does.  She lays on her back and rocks herself from side to side very fast until she winds down enough then rolls over and goes to sleep.  Chad and I have always wondered why her hair was rubbed off on the back of her head. It soon became obvious.  It breaks my heart to think that she has needed rocked but for so long but no one had the time to do it.  Baby girl, you have a family now and we love to read books and rock. I promise that you will never have to rock yourself to sleep again.  She will fit right in with our bedtime gang at home.  Our boys love to read and snuggle and that is defiantly a part of bedtime that they don't ever let us forget.